10 Things You Aren’t Feeding Birds…Yet

Don’t limit your birds to seed, suet and sugar water. Keep ’em coming back for more by feeding birds the best buffet on the block.

By Ken Keffer

Johann Schumacher Design

Gray catbirds love oranges. Put one out in your yard to attract them!

When was the last time you added a new feeder to your backyard? Or put out a special treat for the birds? Even if you’ve been feeding backyard birds for years, there are probably a few things you haven’t tried yet. And adding new things is the best way to attract a wider variety of species to your space. Give one of these fun food options a try and see what you can attract.

Peanut ButterI know many folks who have stopped buying suet cakes and now make their own, with peanut butter as the base. Others have made the switch from feeding peanuts, either in or out of the shell, to offering peanut butter instead. You can stuff the holes of a log feeder with peanut butter or even just smear it on tree bark.

Woodpeckers and blue jays relish peanut butter snacks. You can also put it out for species like nuthatches that will store caches of peanuts but would be hard-pressed to stock up on jars of peanut butter!

JellyWhat goes better with peanut butter than jelly? Grape jelly is becoming a go-to offering for orioles. Gray catbirds and red-bellied woodpeckers are among the other species that can’t resist the sweet, fruity stuff. You can buy a special jelly feeder, but any shallow container will also do the trick.

FruitMany lodges in the tropics offer fruit to draw birds in for close viewing. Tanagers are keen on these fruit feeding stations, and some folks who live farther north have been fortunate enough to lure the brilliantly colored western, summer and scarlet tanagers to their own backyards. Orioles love orange halves; when they’ve eaten the fruit, fill the empty peels with jelly. Also try putting out berries or raisins, or experiment with any fruit you happen to have. You just might attract mockingbirds or robins.

Butterflies flock to fruit, too. I’ve used a window feeder to offer apples and bananas and had great success attracting these pretty fliers.

MealwormsTry adding some mealworms to your buffet. Some people have success with oven-roasted worms, while others swear by the live ones. I keep a container of the latter in my refrigerator door, and the only real maintenance is to toss in a carrot for them once in a while (they need to eat, too!). Mealworm feeders need to be a couple of inches deep so the worms won’t crawl out. Although it might take the birds a while to find your mealworms, once they do, they’ll be hooked. Mealworms are like candy to them. I offer a dozen or so at a time. The birds will quickly train you to feed them on a regular schedule by scolding you when you slack off.

Mealworms appeal to a wide range of birds, including some species that don’t usually come to traditional feeders. Some of the most common are bluebirds and robins.

John Gill American goldfinch on a sunflower.

Roasted SeedsPlenty of birds are seedeaters, but think beyond the usual sunflower and safflower varieties. Try roasting pumpkin or squash seeds; you can bake up a batch, share half with the birds, plain, and season the other half to your own liking. Then you’ll be snacking right along with the birds that you’re watching. Northern cardinals, sparrows and other seed specialists will especially enjoy the variety.

Baked EggshellsThese provide calcium, which can be especially important for females during nesting season. But it’s essential that you wash and bake the shells to kill off any potential pathogens. You wouldn’t want to give your feathered guests food poisoning or something even worse. After you bake the shells, crush them and add them to your seed, or just sprinkle them on the ground. You can also offer them in a platform feeder.

CompostWhen I was growing up, my grandpa had the biggest compost pile ever. I remember hauling out the scraps in an old ice cream bucket and tossing them on the pile. I also remember that black-billed magpies were always eager to greet me at the pile. Just remember that your compost pile is fair game for other critters, too. I could always count on spotting a raccoon on my grandpa’s after dark.

Stale NutsIt seems like there are always some leftover nuts around, especially during the holidays. If you’ve got unsalted nuts that are past their prime, put them out and see which birds will take a bite. Salted nuts are OK, too, but put them in a paper bag first and shake off some of the excess salt. A little salt won’t hurt birds, but too much isn’t good for them.

PlantsThis one might sound obvious, but its importance can’t be overstated. One of the best ways to diversify your backyard feeding station is to garden for birds. (And not just for the hummingbirds.) Plant some native berries or fruit trees, or let your flowers go to seed, and you’ll reap the avian rewards in all seasons.

Suet CreationsTraditional suet is made of beef fat, but Birds & Blooms hears frequently from readers who rave about their homemade suet recipes. Some use lard, peanut butter, coconut, raisins, birdseed and much more to make suet cakes. So experiment with the foods mentioned above and see what tasty bird treat you can come up with!

MORE BIRDS FEEDING FACTS FROM OUR EXPERTThough it’s been a tradition for decades, experts say you shouldn’t feed bread to birds because it can lead to nutritional problems.

THE LEAST PICKY EATERSNo matter what you’re serving, these birds will eat it.

Blue jays. They’ll eat just about anything and are not bashful about it.

Red-bellied woodpeckers. Known for munching on seed, suet, fruit, mealworms and many other offerings.

Grackles. They’re not just less picky eaters, they’re also some of the messiest.

In the article 10 things you’re not feeding birds….yet, bread and other baked goods are on the list of what not to feed. Can you explain why? I have been putting out stale bread for birds for years and now find that was wrong!

Ladies who are questioning the used of bread and/or baked goods; this is why I do not put out either for “our” birds.
First, I’m in my late sixties, and have been a licensed wild bird rehabilitator since my mid-twenties.
Baked egg shells, sliced oranges, black niger seeds, Sunflower seeds, various small seeds, small pieces of nut meats, raisins, grape jelly, suet: store suet–lots of nuts and fruit; homemade suet — peanut butter, nuts, fruits, ‘Crisco’ or lard, et al. Make certain that birds have clean water year ’round….I’ve had Robins bathe in water covered with snow.
Unless you want to be feeding ‘city’ pigeons, starlings, grackles, then feed the above-mentioned birds….and more vacuum cleaner birds will be gobbling all of the set-out food for the other birds….in moments all foods will be gone/eaten. This is the reason for no bread and/or baked goods.
The birds you do not want gobbling all of the ‘bird food’ will be the ones eating everything — each and every time you put food out. In addition, a song bird you’d love to have in your yard might choke on dry breads.
You’ll hear other reasons, but take all with a grain of grain…….

I am going to put out some oranges for the birds also.. I have several summer tanagers who show up for water. I have multiple bird baths and other water containers out for them. I also do my watering of my flower beds (for the birds and butterflies) by putting my water hose on a stand with a sprayer nozzle. I let a gently spray go over my flower beds every day just so the birds can play in the water. I usually have dozens of birds in it and quite a few cardinals. I live in 100 degree south Texas and we are in the middle of a terrible drought again so I do what I can for the wildlife.

I took a piece of scrap wood and put a nail at each end for citrus fruit. The blunt nail head can be pushed through the skin (it’s easier to poke a knife through if it’s a tougher skin) and the orange/tangelo/mandarin halves are held in place for the birds. They seem to appreciate not having their fruit fall to the ground-what a sad sight, birds gazing glumly at an upside down fruit that they can’t eat.

Bread, potato chips, corn chips etc are empty calories. No nutrition. When you see people feeding ducks loaves of white bread, those birds are filling up on “nothing” which eventually causes nutritional-based illness.

Someone define ‘organic’ for me. Peanuts grow underground. How much more ‘organic’ can you get. Jelly comes from fruit. Same thing, fruit grows on trees, pretty organic. The whole ‘organic’ thing is just a marketing trick to draw in gullible people. Peanut butter is usually just peanuts that have been put thru a blender.

Larry, I understand your thought on this, but most things are good for the birds (with the exception of the non-nutritional list). Where the problem is, that Patti is suggesting, is that most store bought things have added ingredients, so it’s not just peanuts or just fruit from trees. There are preservatives, among other things in the prepackaged stuff. I do agree with you though, it doesn’t have to be organic (some of us can’t afford that), just watch the ingredient label for the extra stuff you don’t want the birds to have.

I have been feeding them for years and stopped putting out bread, maybe about 5 years ago, because I hadn’t thought about it not having any nutritional value. I do need to start making my own suet again, which I used to do, because beef fat (suet) is fairly cheap to buy. I melt it down and add peanut butter, bird seed, and other berries when I do.

I feed my birds bread and other baked goods. But I make sure there is never mold on anything I feed birds. I use to only want to attract songbirds and pretty birds. But I have come to the conclusion that all birds are God’s creatures that need to eat. So all are invited and welcome to visit my feeders and partake. About 2 years ago I had a few crows show up and now I attract about a dozen. At first I thought crows were a nuisance type of bird and never paid them much attention. But now I love them the best. They are intriguing to watch. Figuring out their behavior is fun. I even started calling my property “Hidden Crow Cove”. However, I do enjoy all that arrive (except birds that eat other birds).

I feed my birds bread every day. They look forward to it, and if I’m late putting it out, they let me know. I give them mostly wheat and bread with seeds on the crust. They don’t get that much white bread, which they prefer. I fill their feeders every day, much to the chagrin of my neighbour, who called the police on me for feeding them! She is one of the original “Silent Spring” people! No trees in her yard, few plants, and all in pots. She’s the Grinch who stole spring!

I live in New Zealand, and where we are there are few frosts-many years we have none at all. This year we had several, and the shallow bird bowl froze. Imagine my dleight when I saw a waxeye (tiny bird, not quite sparrow size) skating merrily around on it. He wasn’t slipping, he was whizzing around and having a lovely time. I didn’t take a photo, as I didn’t want to disturb the skater.

This was a great article. I already have some cardinals who fly into my patio door when the feeder is empty.

I have a problem with doves. I get the rock doves and the Eurasian collared doves (non-native and super aggressive). They are such pigs and never let the other birds at the feeder. Any thoughts on what to feed to NOT attract them?

Right now I am just putting out seed from the feed store and a heavy fruit mixture that goes in one feeder. The doves don’t like that but the sparrows and finches do.

I found the tube feeders work great for the smaller birds. Don’t get one with a tray on the bottom. The doves can’t stand on the little pegs. I keep the regular feeder in the front yard for the doves after all, they have to eat too!!

I love the birds who come to my feeders daily. My main complaint is the greedy squirrels. They not only hog all the food, but they even detached my latest “squirrel-proof” feeder and carried it about one hundred yards into the woods where they live!!! They simply unscrew the top and/or unhook the entire feeder! Any suggestions to outsmart them?

I had a feeder that was on a pulley and rope. (So you could lower it and pull in up so the cats wouldn’t get the birds feeding.)The squirrels chewed the rope in two and crashed to feeder to the ground. I changed to a piece of electrical wire that they couldn’t chew in two. Having the feeder 5 or 6 feet off the ground didn’t stop the cats. I watched a cat sit on the ground, have a bird perch on the opposite side of the feeder. He jumped and hooked a paw around the other side of the feeder and snagged a bird. It’s a tough world out there.

We have a 3′ rod in our tree trunk (from previous owner) & my bird feeder hangs from the end. I saved all my scotch tape plastic reels and put them onto this rod. Not one squirrel has made it to the feeder yet because they spin & they get scared

I read a couple of years ago that if you put a little oil on a cover (bought on Amazon….Keeps feeder dryer in rain and also a squirrel deterrant) and sprinkle red pepper flakes, it’ll keep the squirrels away, and it works! The oil keeps the red pepper flakes in place

I have also been putting out bread for years, and the birds seem to like it (I live in New Zealand) I also put out muffin cases if there’s a reasonable amount left on, and with bran muffins there usually is-and I deliberately don’t peel the cases off with too much care 🙂

Ours like apples & if a whole one’s put out will hollow it right out. When I eat apples, I cut the cores out and leave a reasonable amount on, but these have to be thrown over the fence onto the verge as the dog likes them. He also ate the seed when that was put on the lawn, so now I have a table for that and water. I found a lovely shallow pottery bowl that seemed tailor-made for a birds water bowl, though I don’t think that it was 😀 Some messy birds will turn the water into seed soup.

I did not see pears mentioned.. in my previous house, there was a concrete cinder block wall I used to put a stoneware bowl on and would keep ripe pears on it. One day, I looked out and there was an entire family of woodpeckers eating it! Mocking birds loved it also. I loved seeing 2 baby woodpeckers and their mamma all munching on the pear at the same time!

I have a question about the baked egg shells….do you still have to bake them if you made hard boiled eggs???? And how long do you bake them for and what temp??

I love feeding my birds….those darn squirrels are greedy little btards tho!!!! ugh!! I also make my own suet…they love it!! They eat mine all gone and don’t touch the store bought ones!! 🙂 I just can’t put it out in the summer, it melts.

My husband and I always nuke the eggshells approx 30 seconds before crushing and mixing in with the seed we put out. Also I’ve added stale bread, cookies and cereal to my homemade suet. Draws everything but I especially like to see the woodpeckers! The squirrels eat some but they’re all God’s creatures and have to eat. The buggers that get to me are the starlings! What pigs!

I once found the top of my feeder all chewed up, since we don’t have squirrels, I couldn’t figure what happened. Looked like a dog chewed it! But, it’s 8 ft off the ground. THEN, one hot night, I was swinging near it, and saw a FLYING squirrel! ahha! It was the flying squirrel who did it. My Mom had a pecan tree, so I got a bag of them, and placed cracked ones in a gallon ice cream bucket, and hung it on a plant hanger I nailed to the tree on the other side of the seed feeder. I had flying squirrels in DROVES coming in to eat the pecans, and left the seed alone! They are SO cute and funny! I loved them more than the birds, and was getting within one foot of them when I had to move away. I often wonder what happened to them. I would swing at night and listen to them whistling, and flying from tree to tree to get to my treat. I miss them VERY much!

After trying quite a bit of grape jelly in a special container on a picnic table for 3 days and having it disappear very quickly, I kept closer watch to see who or what was eating it. It seems a couple of cats had been visiting our neighborhood and enjoyed the jelly! Normally we do no see cats running loose in our neighborhood and have not seen them since I quit putting out the jelly. Now that winter seems to be near at hand, we will put out other bird foods.

I use a product called Tree Tanglefoot Insect Barrier on the metal stands for my oriole and hummingbird feeders. It’s super sticky and prevents ants from climbing up the post. Otherwise, they take over and drive the hummers away. You have to take extra precautions if you use it on a tree, so read directions. Applying it a couple times a year takes care of the ants.

Is there a rule of thumb as to how far apart the feeders should be ? I have several (5) but not a lot of room….they do get busy but are they too crowded ?
I don’t have Tananger’s or Orioles but I do have the cat birds…is an Oriole feeder the best way to serve the oranges ? How long to leave it out before you change it ? Have always used PB for homemade feed, is Crisco really ok ?? Thanks for the info.

For years I made peanut butter cakes and enjoyed Hairy woodpeckers all year around. Last fall Juncos discovered this food and chased off the woodpeckers and many other birds. Junco would clean up a peanut butter cake in minutes, they even discovered how to hang onto a feeder that didn’t have a perch. I’ve stopped making the peanut butter cake. How can I discourage Juncos and get my favorite birds back?

Sadly, we can no longer have a compost pile. There has been an influx of rodents in the city over the last two years, compromising the feeders we can use and forcing us to close our compost pile.
The increase construction has resulted in fewer foxes, racoons and coyotes, and increased the number of rats.
Sigh.

I’ve switched to platforms for feeding.
I buy black oiled sunflower seeds by the 40# bags and a mixture of dried fruits/nuts/kernels, etc. I also add dried mealworms. I also put out assorted fresh fruit.
Too many squirrels have wrecked havoc on hanging feeders. I keep plenty of peanuts and critter food on the ground for the chipmunks, voles and squirrels.

Well, I have a “murder of crows” that are my friends now, and I feed them.. well they eat ANYthing. Yes, even bread. Bread soaked in the drained grease from browning meat is one of their absolute favs. Dog food. Any table scraps. I have a little platform just for them. LOL I can even call them in. I put out the food, give the call caws and they show up really quick. I love my crows.

try liberally using hot pepper in the bird food. It won’t affect the birds a bit, quite the opposite, they absolutely love it, but rodents and wildlife won’t go near it. Once they do go near it and just taste one seed, they won’t ever return there. I find that chickadees love hot pepper more than any other bird, once just to see, i put out seed with hot pepper and without. The birds didn’t seem to have any preference, except for the chickadees. They wouldn’t even go near the seed that didn’t have the hot pepper. And i’ve like ten times as many chickadees around since i started.

One thing you might want to keep in mind is if your dogs can get to an area where you have put out bird food. With suet, seeds and especially raisins, you have to be careful. Raisins are deadly to some dogs, and if they eat enough suet or seeds, this is also harmful.

Yes you are absolutely right except for one thing. Use a liberal amount of cayenne pepper in every food you feed the birds. Capsacin is something birds eat in nature and it does not hurt them, but rodents and other wildlife won’t go near it. I find especially that chickadees love hot pepper. Feed them seed with and without, or anything with and without, and one bird, the chickadee, never goes for the untreated seed, Good luck. One other thing i noticed is that cats won’t go within 20 feet of the hot pepper seeds when you use a ground feeder, providing a safe haven for your birds. My st. bernard was the same way, i could not pull her within about 10 feet of the hot pepper, she would not move.

I like to feed about twelve different kinds of things from suet to mealworms, niger seed, millet, black oil sunflower, sunflower chips, peanut butter, apples and bananas and more. It’s not very expensive and you’d be surprised how many different kinds of birds exist in your neighborhood. At my home, there is something for everyone. I never try to repel jays or pigeons, or any other kind of bird for that matter. I love all birds, and treat them as though they were my pets. I put cayenne pepper in their food, they absolutely love it, squirrels won’t go near it. I don’t know why birds love hot pepper so much especially chickadees. If i have both treated and untreated seed out, the chickadees won’t go near the untreated, and since i’ve been using hot pepper, they sing more. Like i said, i can feed ground feeding birds without worry of squirrels, racoons, rats, etc. They cannot stand hot pepper

i’ve heard of it before but i can’t help but to wonder, is grape jelly, which is loaded with sugar and food coloring, actually good for the birds except hummingbirds and orioles? Seems to me this is not very good for them, i’d rather just put out a few grapes for them.

I just started feeding the birds and have seen a lot of them. My problem is that I don’t have any trees, so what should I use to put the feeders up. I hung a small watered from my roof ut that doesn’t seem to interest Them I need help. Thanks